Cracking The SAT Premium

C The first sentence of the last paragraph states that It is no answer to say that when the war
is over the citizen may once more resume his rights.... Thus, LaFollette rejects even the
idea of a temporary restriction of free speech, a right that he calls precious and
fundamental. LaFollette thinks that free speech should never be withheld but instead should
be maintained without interruption or restriction. Choice (C) best matches this meaning
and is the correct answer.

B Choice (B) is the correct answer, as satellite photos gave evidence of the fault lines at the
edges of the earth’s plates. Choice (A) is incorrect because it’s too extreme. Choice (C) is
also wrong because it says that the theory was created in 1965, whereas the passage
indicates that there had been investigations of the theory before then. Choice (D) is too
narrow; the San Andreas Fault is used as an example, but it alone doesn’t prove that plate
tectonics is a valid theory.

C The author states in paragraph 3 that continental-drift theory described the continents as
mobile chunks that moved through the ocean floor, while plate tectonics has the continents
moving with the surrounding seabed. Therefore, (C) is correct. Choice (A) is too extreme
because the continents don’t flow or stay immobile in either theory, nor do they move with
or without purpose in either theory, as (B) states. Choice (D) looks very similar to the
metaphor given, but the actual distinction is the idea of plowing through versus moving in
conjunction with. Thus, (D) is also incorrect.

D The convection currents transfer or diffuse heat from the molten rock, and this leads to the
plate movements. Thus, (D) is correct. Choices (A) and (B) are incorrect because the word
convection doesn’t mean to liquefy or melt. Choice (C) is incorrect because, while the
plates are moving, convection doesn’t mean to move as in a military endeavor.

A The author introduces Yellowstone’s hot springs as an example of how volcanoes can exist
mid-plate when hot spots push lava up through the plate, so (A) is the correct answer.
Choice (B) is incorrect because it is too extreme—one example doesn’t prove anything.
Choice (C) is incorrect because Yellowstone isn’t used in this passage to support an
opposing theory. Choice (D) is incorrect because it’s referring to a mid-ocean ridge, which
occurs at the borders of plates.

C The passage says that These plumes of molten rock, often called hot spots, rise and erupt
through the crust of a moving plate, which suggests the hot spots are punching up through a
complete piece of the crust to create volcanoes, as there’s no fracture for it to flow through.
Thus, (C), As the crustal plate moves, the hot spot “punches” up a line of volcanic and
hot-spring activity, is correct, and you can eliminate (A), (B), and (D).

A The Hawaiian Islands are consistent or on a line with the movement of the Pacific plate, so
(C) and (D), which state the opposite, are incorrect. The islands are created as the plate
moves, but then the plate moves on and the islands don’t change to suit it, so (B) is
incorrect. Choice (A) is the answer.